Free A Light For My Love by Alexis Harrington

idle curiosity made him wonder why she
was sneaking around.
    He took a bite of the unappetizing sandwich
and put it back on the plate. "This sandwich tastes like you used
it to soak up a leak in the roof. The bread is soggy."
    China's head came up and she turned to look
at him, strangely stung by his criticism. "I'm sure this isn't the
worst thing you've ever eaten."
    "That's true," he agreed, lifting the bread
to pick out the chicken underneath. "One time I lived on hardtack
for two weeks when my ship was caught in the doldrums off the
Canaries."
    China clenched her teeth for an instant
before answering. Why was she letting him vex her? "This isn't a
hotel. You knew that before you came here."
    "Which brings me to what I wanted to talk
with you about this morning."
    This abrupt shift caught China off guard. If
he mentioned Ryan again—
    "I want a room on the second floor. If I'm
supposed to act like the other boarders, I should have a room like
the other boarders."
    "Except, as I told you, there is no other
room available on the second floor."
    "Come on, China," he snapped, and put a hand
flat to his chest. "This is Jake Chastaine you're talking to. I
know this house. I stayed here dozens of times when I was a kid.
There are more than four bedrooms upstairs."
    China held her ground. "If you think back to
just a few years ago, you might remember that you were banished
from this house altogether."
    He pushed away the sandwich plate disgustedly
and rose to his feet. "Aunt Gert invited me here. I'm her guest,
not yours."
    He towered over her, and she felt his
impatience. She hated being alone with him, but it kept occurring.
Showing far more bravado than she felt, she insisted, "But I'm in
charge of all our business matters, and I have the final word."
    He pushed past her and reached for his wet
coat. He jammed his arms into the sleeves, then gave her another
long look. "I'll be back in time for dinner, China, and I'd better
get something more appetizing than a leftover soggy sandwich, or
I'm going to start charging you for the meals I have to buy."
    He strode to the back door, flung it open,
and walked out without bothering to close it.
    *~*~*
    Late in the afternoon, Jake sat at the
library table in the back parlor, making necessary adjustments to
the ship's clock. The distant sound of the side door closing broke
his concentration, and he looked up from his work on the
chronometer. He usually had the ability to shut out all
distractions when he needed to. Not today. He was tense and
restless—he swore he could feel his own hair growing. He stood and
wandered to the tall windows in the back parlor, trying to stretch
his spine as he went. It still felt like a corkscrew. He wasn't
looking forward to spending another night on that lumpy mattress in
the attic, but he'd gotten nowhere with China. She was determined
to keep him up there. The idea of a room at the Occident Hotel was
sounding better all the time.
    From deep within a leather chair near the
fireplace, Captain Meredith's wheezy snores trespassed on Jake's
thoughts. He was beginning to yearn for the anonymity to be found
in the long, carpeted halls of a hotel, for the impersonal solitude
of a hotel dining room. Those were the very qualities about hotels
that he'd always disliked. But he wasn't about to spend two months
in that cubbyhole upstairs.
    Jake rested his chin on the top of the window
sash and gripped each side of the frame in his hands. A sigh
escaped him, momentarily fogging the glass. Maybe he'd been a fool
to think he could come back here. He shouldn't have let Aunt Ger t
talk him into it. He hadn't forgotten that China had banished him
from this house, and she hadn't forgotten it either. This afternoon
she'd tossed it in his face like a custard pie. Her youthful,
white-hot anger had cooled and hardened into bitterness.
    His mood matched the dark, brooding weather.
He stared out at the parklike yard that stretched between the house
and the next street. At least